Who is the White House targeting?

12/13/12 3:33 PM EST

There are some clues in the media markets where President Obama is slated to appear in television interviews Thursday.

All are heavily urban areas that include districts that elected GOP members to the House but were competitive for Obama in 2012, suggesting that the House members from those districts could be vulnerable to pressure from Obama supporters in their districts.

For example, the Miami market, where WLTV Univision will broadcast its interview with the president, includes the district of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), which voted for Obama 53-47, and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, which went narrowly for Romney, 51-49, according to a Daily Kos tally.

He will interview with WCCO in Minnesota, where GOP Rep. John Kline’s district went for Obama 49.1- 49 and Rep. Erik Paulsen’s also voted for the president, 50-49.

In Sacramento, home of KCRA, redrawn districts make it difficult to draw the same conclusions, but outgoing Republican Rep. Dan Lungren lost in 2012 to a Democrat and GOP Rep. Wally Herger decided not to seek reelection.

In Philadelphia, the White House targets are easier to discern. The market reaches the suburban districts of GOP Reps. Mike Fitzpatrick and Patrick Meehan, whom Democrats have already targeted with television ads urging them to back Obama in the fiscal cliff debate. The president also made a personal visit to a toy manufacturer in suburban Philadelphia to push his case.

The Philly station sitting down with Obama, WPVI, also reaches southern New Jersey and the districts of GOP Reps. Frank LoBiondo, Chris Smith and Jon Runyan, but it’s unclear if they are part of the White House strategy.

Some of the GOP representatives in the targeted media markets have signaled they may be willing to compromise, particularly on tax cuts, although they have not publicly pledged their support to Obama. Even if the White House pushes all of them to flip, the president may not reach the threshold he needs. But Obama and his team are clearly trying to ferret out any votes they can get at this point.

Correction: An ealier version of this post misstated the reason for Herger's departure from Congress.